lord Martiya's Lilanette Week 2018-2019
by lord Martiya
Summary: Lord Martiya returns to the newest Lilanette Week
1. Day 1: Canon Machine Broke

Hey, everybody, lord Martiya here with the newest edition of the Lilanette Week. This time I'll be a bit more ambitious, as six of the stories will form a coherent plot just for you guys. Hope you'll like it.

Anyway, I'll start with one certain scene from "Chameleon", and go from what my personal experience tells me about Marinette and Lila's characters.

 **Day 1: Canon Machine Broke**

Marinette had to admit she wasn't exactly rational whenever Lila was involved. In fact, even if she wouldn't admit out loud to anyone but Tikki, there was something in the Italian girl that scared her, and it had been there even before Volpina. Hence why she had been trying to expose her so stubbornly, why she had confronted her in the bathrooms… And why she had just let herself being physically intimidated by the girl who now had her backed to the wall with her hands at the side.

"You seem less dumb than the others, so I will give you one last chance: you are either with me, or against me." Lila threatened, almost casually.

"What's wrong with you?" Marinette let out.

And that got an unexpected reaction from the girl, who gave her a terrifyingly familiar glare and slipped for a moment in some dialect: " _Nun facevo la bella vita. O cerchi 'a filastrocca?_ "

"Uh?" Marinette said as she translated the phrase.

"Well, I suppose I could give it. Not that you'd understand, what with having your little place in the world to feel safe, the parents you can trust, bullies that are easily de _ammolla! Ma che cazzo?!_ "

Much to both girls' (and Tikki's) surprise, Marinette had hugged Lila, and had no intention to let go for a while. For she had now realized what scared her so much: Lila had lost all, or almost, all trust in other people, exactly what had almost happened to her because of Chloe's bullying. And if it killed her, she'd make sure she could trust at least one person.

* * *

Alya following an Akuma villain around was something rather common. That she had almost the entire class with her, however, was not, nor was the fact they had collectively caused it.

It had started with Chloe's little comment as they returned to class after the lunch break. "I would have never expected to see Marinette sitting alone _again_ ", she had said. Reminding everyone, including their teacher, that Marinette had a very different reason than jealousy for reacting as she had to what they had done to help with Lila's tinnitus: they had volunteered the desk of a former bullying victim. Then, as they discussed how to resettle the seats, they had noticed Marinette and Lila were missing, and started fearing the worst: one of the two, most likely Marinette, had been Akumatized, and was now attacking the other.

As Alya metaphorically kicked herself for what she had done to the one who was supposed to be her best friend she had also remembered that Marinette had a very good reason for not trusting Lila in general: the day she had first come there she had been late, arriving in the nick of time, and had spent the entire lunch break working on homework that was due for that afternoon, so she had missed Rose vocally identifying Lila as prince Ali's girlfriend before anyone else but Chloe could even hear her voice, much to the Italian girl's bemusement ("For hopefully the last time, we're friends" she had said in a dangerously low voice after slapping her face), not noticed the newcomer at all during the lessons, and couldn't see her as she tried to downplay her relationships with famous people during the lunch break, and by the time she finally discovered Lila she only had a good-looking girl who had made a number of unlikely claims making moves on Adrien-the only way she could have got a worst first impression would have been seeing Ladybug's reaction at Lila endangering herself at revealing their closeness (what had reportedly caused Volpina) but not hearing what the heroine had said, something that could have well happened considering Marinette lived by the very park it had happened. Seriously, it was like some kind of demigod had decreed Marinette and Lila were to be mortal enemies.

The fear of one of the two having been Akumatized was quelled when Mme Bustier's phone, that she had produced to give the Akuma alert, was promptly infected by an Akuma (purple, meaning that Papillon hadn't managed to reproduce the trick for multiple Akuma at a time yet)… And replaced by the one coming from the realization Marinette and Lila were missing together. Marinette, who was the fittest girl and either the second or third strongest female student of the school, with the only one who clearly surpassed her being an older Savate practitioner, rather short-tempered, and alone with the one girl that irked her as much as Chloe. And Lila, Marinette's rival for the spot of second strongest girl who, for all her attempts to hide it, was a good amateur boxer, with a reputation in the relatively small female amateur boxing community because, when in London, she had won by knock-out against an older and larger girl. And of course Marinette was once again the one who didn't know: they knew because Nora, having just realized her sister's world-traveling classmate was _that_ Lila Rossi, had barged in the class right after one of her calls to try and recruit her for her gym and revealed it, but Marinette had already left to calm down. And so she didn't know why they hadn't called Lila out when she had claimed her tinnitus was from saving Jagged Stone's kitten (as if he'd be able to keep one alongside the crocodile!) rather than a training accident like the sprained wrist, or her reflexes had made her catch the thrown napkin and she had said it was to protect Max' eyes from being gouged. God, the moment she thought back to those Lila was sure to convince herself everyone but Marinette was stupid.

So here they were, following Madame Poppins and her teen-tracking cellphone to find the missing girls, hoping they hadn't been trying to kill each other.

"The second row?! Really?!"

"Really. I think Mr Agreste did that on purpose to get revenge for what she had put him through in the past and hadn't thought about the possible consequences…"

Everyone stopped at the voices of Lila and Marinette coming from the bathroom… And not shouting at each other. Then Kim, reckless as usual, opened the door, and saw that, somehow, Marinette and Lila had become friends while everyone was worried they were trying to kill each other.

"Girls… Lunch break is over, and Mme Bustier's phone got Akumatized." Alya said.

Not even five seconds later, Marinette was running away with the Akumatized phone, with Madame Poppins giving chase after being apparently called out of her shock by Papillon. And Alya, having enough of that madness, decided to do as her older sister would have done and went to the Italian girl:

"Look, Lila, we already know of the boxing thing, my sister's _the_ Nora Césaire and told everyone when she tried to get you on the phone and have you enroll at her same gym, and nobody in Paris would say anything when Ladybug is doing her thing, so you can stop with those attempts at covering up."

"Oh. And I who was starting doubting of your intelligence…" Lila admitted. "Say, Marinette's a strong girl, isn't she? In her heart, I mean."

"The strongest."

For a moment, Lila said nothing. Then, looking at Adrien that for some reason was running after Madame Poppins, she added: " _S'er bionno nun move'r culo, Marinette me la fotto io._ "

Alya didn't understand Italian, let alone what was likely a dialect, but what she had just heard, and Lila "did I just make that pun?" snicker after she spoke, made her wonder if her fellow exchange student and Marinette becoming friends had been a good thing after all.

 _Note_

When it comes to the class I work on a simple assumption: they aren't stupid. That of course begs the question, how did they believe her? And my answer is easy: she had been at Le Grand Paris to speak with prince Ali for whatever reason (are they friend-friend, or just friend as two teens in the diplomatic world from nations in good relationship are? That is for you to decide), and Rose, sweet romantic soul she is, took the utterly wrong conclusion and loudly announced it to the whole class, resulting in her being established as "Prince Ali's friend/star-crossed lover", and pretty much everything else sparked from there, convincing the girl from the _very_ cunning-dependant diplomatic world she was surrounded by idiots and not normal teenagers. As for the boxing thing, her general nimbleness and the way she caught the napkin hint at that or another martial art/combat sport with a heavy emphasis on footwork and parrying, and I'm of the idea she had said the very transparent lies about Jagged Stone's kitten and the eye-gouging napkin _planning_ to get caught and being "forced" to admit it… Except everyone but Marinette knew already, guessed she was trying to hide the boyish interest and was gentle enough to get along, further convincing Lila everyone but Marinette and Adrien were dumb.

 _What Does Lila Say_

As you may know from my other stories, I imagine Lila as being from Rome, and her first language being not standard Italian but Romanesco, the local "colorful" dialect, for the simple fact I find amusing to have a classy girl suddenly speak in a way that outside Rome would be extremely crass. Marinette, given her grandmother, can understand it (it helps that in the end Romanesco isn't too different from standard Italian), but not all of you readers can, so, let me translate: the first phrase translates literally as "I didn't live the good life. Or do you want then list?"; the second is a demand that Marinette lets her go, with the general purpose Italian curse "cazzo" used as emphasis; the third, finally, translates as "If that blond doesn't get his ass moving, I'll steal Marinette", with the verb used here for "steal" actually meaning "have sex" (Lila didn't actually mean that double meaning).


	2. Day 2: Valentine

For this, I will use a piece of headcanon of mine: Lila has a few friends she met in her travels around the world, all identified by nicknames that come from complicated puns: Lustro (met in Jeddah), Silvié/Rea (met in Tokyo), La Tigre della Torre di Tokyo (meaning "The Tiger of Tokyo Tower", they met in London even if Tigre is actually from Tokyo, as Tigre had followed her father while he was working abroad), and Pinks (met in London). They will appear in my story _Fox Rain_ , with Lustro showing up as early as the third chapter, but today you get a small anticipation of one of the others.

 **Day 2: Valentine**

It was Valentine's day, and this time Marinette was ready to ask Adrien out, even as she was a bit worried about Lila: her most unexpected friend had disappeared again in the last few days, and while she had been keeping contact she couldn't help but worry in a relapse. Even visiting her as Ladybug-and she was surprised it had been _Lila_ to make the first step about becoming friends with her superhero identity, before Marinette could try again-hadn't helped, as the Italian fox wasn't there.

She was thus rather happy when she entered the class, holding a large chocolate cake that got the entire class' attention.

"Tomo-choko, Marinette." she said as she put the cake before her.

"Could you translate?" Marinette asked.

"Uh? Oh, sorry, I tend to forget that… I'm borrowing one of Japan's traditions about this day. You see, in Japan a girl can offer three types of chocolate: the giri-choko, or Chocolate of Obligation, for acquaintances and coworkers, the honmei of True Feeling for the one they love, and the tomo-choko of Friendship for their dear friends. Given our past differences I decided to make you the best tomo I could, so I went to Japan because one of my friends there has a special recipe I can't actually believe I got her to share and used it to bake you this cake. I hope you'll like it."

Still not used to how overboard Lila would get with everything, Marinette went and looked at the cake. She could see it was indeed homemade by an amateur, one not too bad-at least now she knew why she had been insisting for those baking lessons. Baking and decoration, it had on top a drawing of Lila wearing a white shirt, dark blue pants, jacket and wide hat and playing a traverse flute in a bandstand and Marinette listening with a smile. Suddenly, Marinette realized what Lila had presented her and herself on the cake, and looked at her with buggy eyes and an open mouth, too shocked to speak as her cheek became a bit pinker.

"Uh… Something's wrong?" Lila asked, worried.

Adrien, of all people, was the one to explain: "You represented yourself and Marinette as Peynet's lovers."

Lila looked at the cake in shock, her expression mirroring Marinette's except for a growing blush as she realized what her friend had tricked her into drawing and revealing. Then she said the only thing she could say:

"Tigre, io t'ammazzo…"

If nothing else, that had distracted Marinette from asking Adrien out, and netted Lila a death threat from the latter if she did anything to the former.


	3. Day 3: Formalwear

Did you that Gabriel Agreste, shameless as he is, is selling copies of the various Miraculouses? That is how Lila was able to procure a pendant identical to the Fox Miraculous so easily: just walk to a jewel shop and use some of her apparently immense allowance. And I'll take advantage of that right now.

I am not a fashion expert. At all. I know martial arts and combat sports equipment brands (well enough I can give you the exact brand of Nora's handwraps), I know comedy, I know history and classical mythology, I know how to make a good cotoletta from scraps, but I don't know fashion. So please be utterly ruthless when you dissect this chapter, I can take the criticism and get better.

 **Day 3: Formalwear**

The last few weeks had been "interesting" for Marinette. While she was glad to have a good relationship with Lila, even as Ladybug, the fact the girl was not only in love with her but also, differently from Nathaniel and others, willing to fight for her had complicated things.

Also, Chloe's latest effort to prove she was reformed had been to throw the class another party-inviting the Japanese exchange student that had been keeping her in line before having to follow her father to London, even paying her plane ticket, and the fact she was nicknamed "Minefield" for a reason and her personality made Alya seem _timid_ had of course made things crazier than usual.

On the other hand, the girl was a romantic at heart and a good friend, and the combination of having twice as much hair as Lila, not enough money to see a hairdresser as often as she'd need, and absolutely no sense of measure meant she had taught herself to care for hair well enough she could get hired by Hollywood's greatest stars, so she had done a fantastic job styling her and Alya's hair.

So there she was at Le Grand Paris, with the crazy visitor wearing a seafoam cheongsam and earrings decorated with the Tiger's Eye stone (both acquired during a brief and disastrous voyage to China) and Alya dressed in a turtleneck LBD and no jewelry aside for the actual Fox Miraculous (altered in such a way to appear activated and thus being mistaken for one of the _Gabriel_ copies, such as the one that had served as Lila's first Akumatized object), while she wore a low short-sleeved light pink mermaid dress with a thigh-high slit on the left, with white evening gloves and black shoes and her hair tied in two buns and held by an orange ribbon on the left and a dark grey one on the right-the Minefield had been rather insisting on that. She said it was about coordination, and knowing her she could well know something about Adrien's outfit. Now it was only a matter of locating Adrien and, as her two insane friends had put it, "dazzle your partner with your gorgeousness second only to your personality".

"Target detected." the Minefield said.

Marinette turned to follow her eyes, ready to totally-not-seduce Adrien, but the sight was unexpected: it was Lila. Who, as Marinette was slowly processing and admiring, was wearing an orange turtleneck backless dress with an ankle-length skirt open on the front (and covering _just enough_ of the waist to not be a proper showgirl skirt), dark grey opera gloves, black shoes, _Gabriel_ copies of the _**Ladybug Miraculous**_ , and her fox-like side locks tied not by the usual orange ribbons but the left one by a pink one and the right one by a white ribbon. And she was apparently rather taken in by Marinette's looks as well, even having to visibly gulp not to drool-mirroring Marinette herself, she n0ted.

That was when Marinette felt herself pushed into Lila's arms and was promptly dragged away-and not putting nowhere near as much resistance as she could. As she turned back to watch she saw that Alya was looking at them with a shocked look, while Minefield was giving a cat-like smile. That was when she realized why she had been wearing _**Tiger**_ 's Eye earrings. Or who had talked Lila into wearing those earrings.

* * *

After realizing that the girl known as Minefield was also Lila's mysterious best friend the Tiger, Alya gave her a rather annoyed look, calling her a traitor.

"Improper term, dear-after all, when it comes to shipping I was never on your side." the Japanese girl replied smugly.

"And so you throw Marinette in the arms of someone she was an enemy with until a few weeks ago, rather than helping her with Adrien?" Alya replied.

"I understand how you see it, really. But now, let's examine _my_ point of view: on one side we have Adrien Agreste, nice, kind, fit, intelligent, strong-willed whenever his father isn't involved, who just irritates me on a visceral level due his utter inability to realize he has a crush on Marinette and she, and I'm quoting Lila's description, has been flinging it at him with a slingshot; on the other we have Lila, one of my dearest friends, who's always been tethering dangerously close to go full _gumiho_ but Marinette's has single-handedly turned into a _zenko_. Who should I help?"

As Trixx (who had been hiding in her hair) translated the Tiger's comparison, Alya had to admit that she was making a good point. Maybe she would help Lila… _If_ she actually started earning Marinette's affection. But until then… Well, she and her boyfriend were quite invested in that pairing. That, and Alya wasn't too amused by Trixx pointing out her manipulative streak (especially as it was quite obvious in hindsight. Was that the reason Marinette hadn't liked Lila at the start? Having noticed it immediately?) and hinting she should take example from her.

 _What Does the Tiger Say About Lila_

My dear OC compared Lila to fox spirits: the _gumiho_ (in Korean, "nine-tailed fox") is the Korean take on the far-eastern legend of the fox spirit, and, likely as a cultural backlash against the invasions from the fox-loving Japanese (there's a reason you can find loads of small and large fox statues in Japan), is usually portrayed as a malevolent entity after human hearts and livers; _zenko_ (in Japanese, "good fox") is instead a subset of the kitsune, often associated with the widely worshiped god of rice and commerce Inari (itself often represented as a fox) and thought that, if found in service of a samurai, would use their magic, cunning and wisdom to protect them in exchange for housing.


	4. Day 4: Akumatized

This one was quite funny to make, especially as I wrote Adrien's ability for delusions-and has the most awesome Lila scene I've written so far, my little attempt to top the Lila of _The Grand Deception_. Tell me if what she pulls is comparable, ok?

 **Day 4: Akumatized**

After the ball, things had changed drastically in Marinette's relationships. After taking advantage of the opening provided by their common friend, Lila had done her best to impress her-and had done a good enough job she could have had her way with her, had she not showed more restraint than even Lila herself thought (it had been obvious in hindsight that the Italian girl had _really_ wanted that), impressing Marinette even more in the process. Enough that, before they kissed (and Lila had given her more than enough time to move away), Marinette had proposed they exchanged their hair ribbons.

Now half the school was likely convinced they were dating, something that Marinette would have once been dreading due the chance of Adrien joining the group too… Except she wasn't minding too much, she had noticed a couple days previously while she and Tikki put up a few pictures of Lila in her room. She had even started talking more smoothly to Adrien and transferred some of the stutter to Lila-especially whenever the fox girl would suddenly come too close with her face.

On the other hand she had been growing a bit irritated with Alya and Nino, as they seemed to have made their mission to keep her from staying alone with Lila and pushing her into Adrien's arms. And she wasn't the only one growing irritated, considering the previous day she had seen Lila venting by going to the two guys who had been bullying Nathaniel and Marc over their relationship and tricking them into punching each other's fist-sure, it had ended any homophobic bullying at their school for the time being, but Lila still had got two guys to shatter their hands.

Thus, given she had a date with Lila planned for after the school, she had decided to confront them on that as soon as they arrived to school before her very irascible love interest got Akumatized again-and of course they were denying everything.

"Guys, I'm not stupid." Marinette replied.

"But I'm starting to fear _they_ are." a strangely familiar voice pointed out. Marinette looked to see and, much to her, Alya's and Nino's very understandable surprise and shock, they found _Rena Rouge_. "I mean, they should know that this way they're far too likely to bring back my superior death-tailed counterpart…"

Just as Marinette registered that "Rena Rouge" had repeated the pun made by the Minefield while Alya wasn't there but _Lila_ was, a fist suddenly became visible through her and an orange glow dissolved Rena Rouge-and revealed Volpina, wearing Lila's jacket over her costume.

"What did you say about Rena Rouge and Volpina?!" and of course Alya had to take offense at being called inferior to Volpina.

"I'm saying that Rena Rouge, differently from me, can't actually play the _dizi_ flute, must remember to tell Ladybug I can give her some lessons." Volpina replied. "That and, no matter how good she'll become with the power of illusions, she just isn't ruthless enough to use it at its fullest-I mean, I doubt she'd even _think_ to use an illusion showing her taking someone hostage like I did."

"Mmmgrr…"

"But that's not important right now. What _is_ important, Marinette, is that right now I've got the power of illusion and I'm fully in control, and can think of quite a few things to use it for in our date before I call Ladybug and give it up."

While Marinette tried to guess if this time Volpina was a supervillain or was indeed her Lila with superpowers she saw a familiar mask of light appear before Volpina's eyes-and her reply was the most awesome thing Marinette had ever seen since her first Miraculous Cure washed over Paris.

"Listen up, _a' stronzo 'ncorvattato_ , I'm not giving up my plans for the day for your sake, so you'll better take a day of rest because if you do take away my powers or otherwise interfere with my date I shall scour the world searching for the cheapest copies of the ugliest jewels and pieces of clothing ever made for the Bling-Bling fashion, use them to assemble an outfit so tacky that Adrien Agreste could have his father wrapped around his finger simply by threatening to wear it in public, force you into it, and lock you into a closet with _Madame Bourgeois!_ "

And with that, the light that signaled Papillon talking with an Akumatized villain disappeared while Volpina dusted her hands off, much to the shock of the entire class-both at the threat (because even Chloe could admit her mother was an incredibly nasty person, especially when confronted with a horrible outfit) and the fact it had _scared Papillon away_.

"Again, Alya, this is why Rena Rouge is inferior: considering half the things I've heard about that woman she would never _think_ to make such a threat. Then again, maybe that means she's a better person." Volpina continued. Then she turned to Marinette, put a finger under her still open mouth, and asked: "Is this an invitation?"

"Uh? Agh! No! Yes! I mean-! STOP DOING THAT!"

"I just can't get enough of that. Anyway, still going out with me today?"

"Yes! Yes! My god, that was awesome…"

Volpina smiled… And then the purified Akuma popped out of her left hair ribbon, leaving behind a rather bemused Lila.

* * *

As he returned home for the day, Adrien was in a strange mood. On one hand he was happy f0r Marinette and that Lila had turned over a new leaf, but on the other hand he didn't like that it wasn't him at Marinette's side. If he wasn't already in love with Ladybug he'd swear he was jealous.

"Welcome home, Adrien. How was your day?"

Adrien turned in surprise-his father _never_ came to greet him at the door. That, and he looked strange. Probably some trouble on the job again.

"Just a bit strange-Lila was Akumatized again." he replied, and feigning to have missed his father's twitch-he didn't exactly like Lila, ever since she had admitted her part in the book trouble. "But it was a strange Akumatization, she kept full control and even scared Papillon by threatening to dress him horribly and lock him in a room with Chloe's mom if he took away her powers."

"He threatened him with Audrey?! _I_ wouldn't do that to my worse enemy."

"She can't be that bad…"

"She's _worse_. Enough I thought Papillon wouldn't dare to Akumatize her-that's the whole reason I gave her that second row seat."

Adrien took a moment to digest the fact his father had dumped Audrey Bourgeois with serial killers and other people that Papillon was too decent and/or intelligent to Akumatize, then continued relating what had happened.

"Anyway, right after that Lila became so happy she accidentally purified the Akuma, and-father? Father?!"

Adrien wondered why did his father just ran and locked himself in his office before activating the security system-it wasn't like he was Papillon, and even then Lila didn't have the means to actually enact that threat. Or did she, and his father thought she'd come there believing they had information useful to track him down? After all, they had a book with information on the Miraculouses and Lila had seen it…

 _What Does the Fox Says_

As many of you guys may have noticed, just as Rena Rouge's design includes nine "tails" (two in the tuxedo-like tails of her costume and the rest in her hair), so Volpina's design has four (the belt, the side locks and her immense mane of hair)-and given how terrifying Volpina was, a certain someone obviously _had_ to make a pun with the fact one of the Japanese words for "four" sounds like "death".

Returning with the phrases in Romanesco: this time it translates as "tie-wearing piece of shit" (as many of you guys know, I use "Papillon" rather than "Hawk Moth" because in Italy a "papillon" is the bowtie and allows me to use that pun). I guess that the side effects of Akumatization impaired Lila's ability to come up with better insults…


	5. Day 5: Fantasy AU

As I said on Day 1, six of the one-shots would form a coherent storyline. This is the one who isn't part of it, as I couldn't figure out how to put it in. Took me a while to figure out what to do. At one point I was about to write a story where Marinette had to deal with the difference between a genie and the original _djinn_ , but in the end this came out, with some fun had with naming locations and titles. I'm not completely satisfied with it, feels like I crammed too many things in here… Hope it's not too bad.

P.S.: Referencing _Goblin Slayer_ and _The Rising of the Shield Hero_ a bit. If you know them, you'll know why I did it.

 **Day 5: Fantasy AU**

Once again, Marinette questioned having come to Cornovia just like that. They were skilled, they were well-trained and equipped, there were five of them, but they had discovered new evidence about Adrien's parents possibly being there, so they had moved… And, as her missing friend would have said, forgot "to pack enough flour to make both bread and dust explosions and getting proper knowledge of what we should blow up and what can't be collateral damage". And so, as they went to the lair of the Flute Witch, they had been completely caught by surprise by the golem that grew as it was hit and she had been separated by her party, and was now with her back at a cliff and a host of goblins, of all disgusting things, and if half the things she had heard were true, she'd be better jump.

As she had been considering to do just that, Marinette heard something similar to a whistle, and immediately the ground started trembling, heralding the appearance of a giant wormlike _thing_ that passed _through her_ and chased the goblins into the cliff. At least the ones who hadn't fainted or died from the scare. Right after that, the thing disappeared into an orange glow, and a figure in a dirty cloak moved to each goblin and beheaded them all with an old falchion.

Then the figure turned to look at her, and even after five years Marinette still recognized Lila's eyes, even as weary as they were, and the mischievous glint in her eye. Even with the others missing, Marinette found herself smiling.

"Are you well, your grace?"

A smile that fell at Lila's formal greeting and cold voice.

* * *

To Marinette, the good news were that Lila wasn't dead as she had feared, she was apparently the Flute Witch, who had created the illusion of the wormlike thing to save her and had then led her to her lair, and once there she had taken off the cloak stinkened up to distract goblins and put it where Marinette wouldn't have to smell it. The bad news was that she was furious, possibly due their fight the last time they saw each other, possibly for something else.

"Lila, stop calling me that!" Marinette shouted after she had been called as if she was a countess. "I'm Marinette! MARINETTE!"

"I do know my station, your grace, and you are the betrothed to the adopted son and heir of the Count of Lutéce." Lila replied, still cold.

"Why are you doing this?! You disappeared overnight, said to have tried to kill Adrien and being chased out-"

"And do you believe it?"

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE! We fought because of your jealousy, and Adrien said you threatened him if he wasn't good for me, but the accuse came from the Countess, and I know you, and-"

"I made no attempt on his life." Lila said, somewhat less cold.

"Thanks god!"

"Yet."

"Wait, what? Why?!"

"BECAUSE THIS!"

With that shout, Lila opened her shirt, baring enough of her chest to show she had been branded with a slave crest. One with the symbol of the Darkblade, the Count of Lutece deposed and replaced by André Bourgeois, and apparently still active. Knowing the timing of the man escaping from Petit-Bourg to Cornovia and Lila's insane stubborness (strong willpower, Lila would say), it wasn't hard to guess what had happened. Still, she couldn't let Adrien pay what his adopted mother had done, she had to convince Lila to not do that. And she had a certain reputation back home.

"There's no need for that." she started. "We can prove your innocence once we go back to Lutece-"

"We can't." Lila sing-songed. "See, this land is under control of a warlock, or wizard, or whatever, don't know the exact classification, but this guy, named Hawk Moth, has surrounded Cornovia with a magical barrier. Without his explicit permission _and_ amulet you can come in, but not come out. I know, I've a collection of those amulets. So, the only option would be to kill him and break his spell… After fighting your way through his Akumas. Speaking of coming in, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Adrien's parents-we've heard that they may be Hawk Moth's prisoners."

Lila looked pensive for a moment, then admitted: "Well, I _did_ find some hints that in hindsight may point to that… But why, exactly, should I help him? Collateral revenge isn't my only reason to wish him harm, you know. We were actually fighting over that last time, if I recall correctly…"

Marinette had _really_ hoped Lila had forgot that. Yes, they had been rather close, enough that if they had continued the priests in Lutece would have considered them impure (and Lila had quite some convincing points about that being "a silly superstition I'm surprised you haven't outgrown yet" and a love without the call for reproduction being purer than one with it, Marinette had to admit), but she loved Adrien. And only him. Never mind certain dreams she had sometimes.

"Because you were friends." Marinette replied. "Because we still are, I hope, and I'm going to find out what happened, no matter the risks, and there's nothing you can do to change my mind."

At that Lila kissed Marinette, much more aggressively than they ever had, savoring her lack of resistance and her shivers and moans, before pulling back.

"Are you sure?" she asked, still very close to her increasingly blushing guest.

"I-I-Er… I'M SURE!"

"Huff. Very well. I suppose I can help you-at least you'll survive long enough for me to seduce you."

"YOU'RE NOT SEDUCING ME!"

At that, Lila laughed. And Marinette had to admit, at least to herself, that it wouldn't be easy to deny her…


	6. Day 6: Sick & Caretaker

This chapter is based on what I think is the most often forgotten side of Lila's character: she's ridiculously irascible, and when angry tends to go overboard and/or do really stupid things. You have no idea how much fun I had with this one…

 **Day 6: Sick & Caretaker**

"You know, for someone so cunning you can do some really stupid things." Marinette said as she put the disinfectant on Lila's wounded cheek while they sat in the Césaires' living room. "Why did you get into a fistfight with Alya's sister?!"

"It wasn't a fistfight." Lila protested.

"Well, why did you get in a physical fight with her then?"

"You heard her!"

"Lila, she just called me "Baguette". You have a nickname for me too, don't you?"

"Yes. But coming up with nicknames is an art! It must represent someone's personality or something they're proud of, and not insult them! That's why I've been calling you Canalè', it's a reference to the fashion legend, Coco Chanel, because I know you can be just as good and revolutionary a designer, while calling you "Baguette" reduces you to _your parents_ ' job."

Marinette sighed, realizing she wouldn't get anywhere with Lila on that. Especially as she had actually managed to knock Nora down-and even if Lila had caught her completely by surprise, it had been months since anyone even managed to hit her at all-and score a few more hits before being punched into the comfy chair.

"Girls, I have bad news." Alya said as she came from Nora's room.

"Lila still has to stay down." Marinette protested.

"It's not that… Lila, Nora says to hurry up and get in her weight class, you gave her the best fight she can remember since we left Martinica, including the Akumas on Heroes Day."

"PRIDE rules with elbows allowed and I can take her right now!" Lila shouted as she rose up pulling two rolls of handwraps and a pair of worn MMA gloves (Leone, of course) from her jacket-before her legs gave up.

"What do I have to do with you?" Marinette asked, exasperated.

"Marry me."

Marinette found herself surprised at the realization she was actually considering it. But then, how would she react at finding out Marinette was the same Ladybug she used to want revenge against?

 _What Does the Lila Says_

PRIDE is a defunct MMA promotion. Their rules' main difference with the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts are greater latitude in attire, as they also allow some shoes, and a ban on elbow strikes to the face.

Leone 1947 is an Italian brand of combat sport equipment. Chosen here for Lila's handwraps and gloves to show she had them for a while-as far I know, they aren't easy to find in France.


	7. Day 7: Free for All!

Finally, the exciting conclusion! What did I come up with this time? Well, for once I regret I couldn't figure out how to have Lila and Marinette make out on Adrien's desk… Just imagine the following day Lila talked Marinette into it and Adrien's scream was heard all the way to the bakery, ok?

 **Day 7: Free for All!**

In the months since she had overcome her paranoia about lynching mobs and stopped hiding in her room to start seeing if Paris would finally have a place for her, even if shallow, Lila had learned to know Marinette. She knew her designer was incredibly fit, and the absurd amount of cookies she carried served to feed that. She knew of Marinette's stalkerish tendencies (to be fair it was technically of public domain, thanks to the awful timing of Alya and Alix pranking her by filling her room with a ton of pictures of Adrien Agreste of varying quality too late for her to clear them all before Jagged Stone barged in her room with a camera crew), so she was actually flattered she had started putting _her_ pictures around. She knew her Canale' had been friends with her crazy Japanese friend the Tiger for longer than they had known each other, so she could explain the pictures in her school uniform from the time in Tokyo (how she had got them when the Tiger hadn't returned there until after Lila had moved out, on the other hand…). She knew that, as much as what had got her interested into Marinette in the first place had been that she had somehow managed to keep her kindness through what had been done to her by Chloe and inefficient anti-bullying policies, she had actually underestimated her about that.

What she hadn't known was that she was also Ladybug. In hindsight it made sense, and in fact Lila had actually suspected it before debunking her own reasoning for it, but she had been still caught by surprise when she had decided to make Marinette a surprise visit and had put her head in the trapdoor just in time to see her beloved transform to go out and deal with a "boredom Akuma"-the ones ridiculous as Mr. Pigeon that everyone was convinced Papillon created out of boredom, given how ridiculous and weak they were (Mr. Pigeon having been the only one posing an actual threat)-and the first Akumatized villain since Volpina's brief return. And so, not knowing if Marinette's parents knew about their daughter's heroism, she had gone and covered up her absence with strategically placed noises and even playing the recording of Marinette's shout when Lila had made her some pointed questions about Ladybug's supposed attempt at getting her with Chat Noir when Nathaniel had been Akumatized, all the while thinking what this new discovery meant and realizing she didn't really care aside for the practical aspects.

Now, however, Ladybug had come back and changed back into Marinette before noticing Lila, and by her panicking she had clearly mistaken her _"Che cazzo?!"_ being about her being Lila's former worst enemy and not discovering that a Miraculous drew its power by a _djinn_ -not the Westernized genie, but an actual, honest-to-Scheherazade _djinn_ , and thus immensely dangerous until proven otherwise. And having to calm her down, and knowing that not only manipulation wouldn't work on Marinette but would make things worse and not having time to think about anything else, Lila went for a twin-handed kabedon (not unlike the one she had Marinette under back in the moment a potential enmity changed in something better) and something she was normally loathe to do: saying the first thing that came to her mind.

"My dear, I figured out you were Ladybug five minutes in our first talk." Well, at least Marinette had stopped panicking. Now, better saying everything and salvage the situation: "I mean, I already started realizing how, well, awesome you are, and with all her encounters with our class Ladybug was bound to realize it too, so why didn't she recruit you as Rena Rouge? And the only answer I could come up with was that _you_ were Ladybug. Then the sixth minute I realized you'd initially refuse, and Ladybug was always on a timetable when she recruited temporary Miraculous Holders, and I convinced myself you weren't." Good, Marinette had calmed down, and was laughing. Time for the other admission: "I'm just a little bit worried about, well-"

"I'm not a _djinn_ , I'm a kwami." the not- _djinn_ interrupted her from her biscuit plate. "By the way I'm Tikki, pleased to meet you."

"Uh… The pleasure is all mine." especially as she wasn't around something that made a nuclear weapon seem tame. "Well, with that cleared, Canale', all this new discovery means to me is that you are even more forgiving and awesome than I thought, and that I can't let you continue refusing Anansi's self-defense lessons. I suppose I could help a bit with the footwork, I mean if there's one thing I'm better than her is that, bMPHF!"

That hadn't been the first kiss between them-Lila had been able to steal one at Chloe's ball and then again after their date, but this was the first time Marinette took the initiative. Another difference was that both times Lila had limited herself to a quick peck on Marinette's lips, always fearing to scare her away, but Marinette had just grabbed Lila's face, brought her down faster than she could notice, and pretty much devoured her lips.

As she started kissing her beloved back, Lila realized that she had finally found her place. And not a shallow one.

 _What Does Lila Say about Genies and_ Djinns

In Islamic folklore the _djinn_ isn't a wish-granting being living in a lamp or a bottle blessed with phenomenal cosmic powers originating in Europeized and out-of-context retellings of Islamic folk tales (including _Aladdin_ ), but rather a creature closer to a fay-possessing an alien sense of morality and superhuman abilities so great to _appear_ supernatural, that a human extremely well-versed in the arcane arts can seal in a bottle or bind to an object that, when rubbed, will summon the _djinn_ from wherever it is and force him to do the bidding of the object's master, and that, if sealed, should _never_ be freed unless one wants to experience the wrath of a being whose natural abilities are beyond human understanding and has been cooped into a bottle for centuries. Hence Lila's initial reaction to finding out her beloved owns earrings that appear to have a _djinn_ bound to them.


End file.
